A Very Unimportant Officer

[tommy mcclimonds]

Picked this book up in Waterstones on Monday - £18.99 but with £3 off only £15.99. The official publication date is in two days time on 26th June 2008. This book according to the blurb was first brought to public attention on BBC's Radio 4's Today Programme, after having gathered dust for over 80 years. Edited by Cameron Stewart it tells the story of his Grandfather, Captain Alexander Stewart, MC, who served with "The Cameronians" during the war, at the Somme, Arras and Third Ypres.

It is written in a very easy readable style and is full of short and sometimes quite funny anecdotes, for example

"When I am very tired and just getting of to sleep, with cold feet, in comes an orderly with a chit asking how many pairs of socks my company had a week ago; I reply 141 and a half. I then go to sleep; back comes a memo; "please explain at once how you come to be deficient by one sock". I reply "Man lost his leg". Thats how we make the Hun sit up".

I have only read the first few chapters but I must admit that I find it hard to put down given the very easy writing style and I am looking forward to reading the rest over the weekend. The editor does admit there are some historical inaccuracies around dates but this in no way should detract from the text. It also has a number of "interesting" illustrations. In my opinion this book will add something to the literature of the Great War.

Regards, Tommy.

PS: I would be interested in what other bookworms and especially the forum "experts" think about the content.

[elle72]

Hi Tommy,

The book sounds great. I really like the title I hope I can get hold of it in Australia!

I found that anecdote very funny......we have been having a bit of a barney in another thread about the 'larrikin spirit' of the Aussie troops and I think it may have been mentioned that British soldiers weren't quite as funny but this little tale certainly proves that theory incorrect. The thread is here if you are interested -

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...howtopic=100365

Cheers,

Elle

[tommy mcclimonds]

Hi Elle

I have been following your thread and the Aussies were not the only ones with a 'larrikin spirit', and I have nearly finished reading "Somme Mud" so I understand your comments, and I must say I really enjoyed it.

Over the years I have met and spoken with a number of veterans from my neck of the woods and I must say that without exception they all had a great sense of humour and could tell more than a few stories. One in particular springs to mind when interviewed on his 90th birthday by a young reporter from our local paper asked if he was scared of dying. To which he quickly replied "Look son, I fought at Ypres, I've been to Hell".

The Editor of the book, Cameron Stewart, does admit that the image his grandfather seems to portray of the British Officer is very much one in the style of Captain Edmund Blackadder (apologies to Des7) from the famous TV series. I do hope the book will be available in Australia and just to whet others appetites - in one passage Captain Stewart describes attacking the enemy whilst smoking a pipe, during which he wins the MC! All I can add is have a good read and enjoy.

Regards, Tommy.

[squirrel]

Just ordered "A Very Unimportant Officer" through GWF Amazon link - they have it at £13-98 plus postage - followed their link to other booksellers and got it, new hardback, for £13.98 including the postage.

[Michelle Young]

Wasn't this the book that was published online earlier this year? There was a thread on here about it at the time but I can't find it.

[IanA]

I am just approaching the end of this book and I have to say that I'm not quite so enthusiastic about it as Tommy. I find the 'easy writing style' thin and lacking anything to prevent you skimming over each page quickly. The writer presents the original entries from his diary, which begins 21st March, 1916. The entries are often mundane (May 3rd - 'Meeting about boxing 12 noon', 'June 21st - Working on Windy defence line', 'June 28th - Raing hard'. There are also gaps in the diary. The writer attempts, not always successfully, to pad out these sparse entries by adding quotations from letters and amplification from memory, ten years after the events described but when compared to such works as 'Four Years on the Western Front' by Aubrey Smith, 'A Subaltern's War' by Edmonds or 'The War the Infantry Knew' by Dunn, it is poor fare.

This is a shame, as the author was obviously a very brave man (winning the M.C.) and saw much fighting. It is the written record I am criticising, not the soldier. I did find some things of interest - for example, how the author, an experienced and brave company officer was deprived of his company when a regular officer arrived at the battalion. This regular officer, to his distress, was left behind whenever an action took place and Stewart took over. Something which is reinforced is how young subalterns arrived, stayed for a very short time, and were killed or wounded.

As has been said, Stewart served with the Cameronian Regiment and so the book will have a particular interest for anyone with a relative who also served with them.

Stewart was wounded at Passchendaele and the diary ends 3rd October, 1917.

[tommy mcclimonds]

Ian A

I am afraid that I allowed my initial enthusiasm after reading the first couple of chapters to run away with me earlier in June. I really should have come back and revised my initial thread accordingly. When I finsihed the book I would agree with you "that compared to such works as 'Four Years on the Western Front' by Aubrey Smith, 'A Subaltern's War' by Edmonds or 'The War the Infantry Knew' by Dunn, it is poor fare", however, as you say it will have some interest to those who have an interest in the Cameronians.

Taking your comment about some of the "entries are often mundane" but them this was written quickly in most instants, in the trenches where life sometimes could often have been described as mundane. Using a quote from my own grandfather, when describing life in the trenches to my mother- "life most of the time, days and weeks on end could be mundane and indeed quite boring but then this was punctutated sometimes by minutes of absolute sheer terror."

Regards, Tommy.

PS: I can't find this book on-line or a previous thread either.

[IanA]

Hi Tommy,

Of course the diary is terse. As Stewart says, he couldn't have made it more elaborate even if he had the time or inclination. The problem is that he then scans his brief notes ten years on and fails to remember who the characters were or what the places were like. We get: "I do not remember much about Rouen"; "I do not remember what they were like"; "I have no recollection of why I seemed to have moved my lodging every night" and many more. It does get tiresome.

Your remarks about boredom and sheer terror are, of course, true.

I think the diary has value,; I think it deserves to be carefully preserved and I believe it belongs in the IWM.

Cheers,

Ian

[MelPack]

I think the diary has value,; I think it deserves to be carefully preserved and I believe it belongs in the IWM.

or in the Regimental Museum where it was deposited by the man himself irrespective of the extravagant claims by the grandson that it was 'newly discovered'

[IanA]

or in the Regimental Museum where it was deposited by the man himself irrespective of the extravagant claims by the grandson that it was 'newly discovered'

Ah....

[squirrel]

I found the book worth the reading. True, it does not compare with Four Years on the Western Front which is probably one of the most detailed diaries published.

The War the Infantry Knew is a compliation of several people's diaries so a direct comparison is not perhaps applicable.

A Very Unimportant Officer compares well with other diaries such as Home In Time For Breakfast by Stuart Chapman or Grandad's War by Juliet & Heather Brodie from the diary of Horace Reginald Stanley.

There was not the time nor opportunity to record every event in detail, nor perhaps the ability to recall what happened some years after the event.

These diaries do however give us the feel for what it was like to be there by the men who were there at the time and cover some lesser known engagements and battles as well as the every day routine both in and out of the line.

[IanA]

I am loth to dismiss the record of anyone who was there and I am not doing so here. I think it is all a matter of degree. Anyone wondering about buying the book and reading this thread will now know enough to make an informed choice.

I happen to think that Stewart was a very fine officer and a rather less fine writer. I absolutely agree with your last paragraph.

[squirrel]

I agree with your post in its entirety.

Another quite superb diary is "Stand To" by Captain F C Hitchcock MC.

[andygrain@aol.com]

I felt that the great value of this diary was that the author really tried to analyse what he and his soldiers had done in the actions they had fought. 15 pages with tactical diagrams of his platoon's part in the attack on High Wood (20 July 16). Similar detail (now a Coy Comd) on the attack on the Hindenburg Line on 26 May 17 and why he thinks it went wrong. I have read more WW2 than WW1 memoirs but I do not think I have ever read such honest accounts by a man really trying to show what he was doing and why he was doing it. For example, one often reads that when troops take cover it is difficult to get them to move. Stewart exlains all this and why and how he tries to deal with it.

I agree that the diary is often thin but it, together with his grandson's notes, do put flesh on the bones of this - quite elderly for the time - officer, the course of his service and his reactions to it.

I feel it is very worthwhile. If others are aware of similar memoirs (Campion-Vaughan springs to mind though he is not so detailed on the technicalities) then please say.

Andy Grainger

[Bernard_Lewis]

Cameron Stewart (grandson of the diary author) is performing 'My Grandfather's Great War', based on the diary, at a number of venues this November. Namely St Albans (7th), Canterbury (9th), Rutland (11th), Petersfield (12th), Pontardawe (13th) (a few miles from where I live) and Great Torrington (14th).

Evening Standard said 'The First World War has been recreated in fact and fiction very many times, but never more powerfully...'

Cameron was nominated for Best Actor at the MEN awards (for Larkin with Women) and his TV work includes Silent Witness, Corrie, Heartbeat, Eastenders, Holby, Doctors and London's Burning.

I have no link to this actor/production - just been given a flyer.

I'll have a peep...

Bernard

[robertsim]

I found it well worth reading, I don't think the style is necessarily important, it still conveys the grim reality of war at the front and some confusion and lack of recall is a messgage in itself. The account of the attack at High Wood provided me with another nugget of information that has helped to build a picture of this two month long battle.